The Glacier Lily
by NunaShipper394
Summary: Lily's trip to Hogsmeade takes and unexpected twist when a certain Gryffindor Quidditch player turns up, and Lily is forced to admitting her true feelings... Sweet Jily one-shot, with slight Wolfstar. Please feel free to read AND review, it'd mean a lot :) Thank you! x


It was late autumn, and the frost was starting to set in for winter. Lily Evans and her friends were hurrying through the Hogwarts grounds, their coats buttoned up to their neck, thick woollen gloves on their hands, with hats pulled over their ears. Despite the cold weather, the grounds were far from deserted, as Lily was about to find out.  
"Hey Evans!" called a voice from behind the red-headed Gryffindor. She spun around to see a group of four boys, all of whom she recognised from her house, walking towards her. 'Strutting' would have been a more appropriate word, Lily thought, if it hadn't been for the short plump boy with watery blue eyes and fluffy blonde hair, who appeared to be skipping in an attempt to keep up with the others. The other 3 were all tall and good looking, the heart throbs of Lily's year group, although Lily herself was _definitely_ not interested in any of the three.  
She sighed, and gestured for her friends to go ahead without her, she knew what was coming, and there was no point in keeping them outside in the cold too.

A boy with black messy hair and rectangular glasses stepped forwards. He was the most muscular of the group, due to his years of Quidditch training, Lily assumed. He ran his hands through his hair, a habit that she'd often noticed.  
"What is it, Potter?" she asked coldly "It's a bit chilly out here, so can you say whatever you need to quickly?"  
"Well, it's a bit like this," James said, walking over to the red-headed beauty, and slipping his over her shoulders. "The next Hogsmeade weekend is the last one before Christmas" he began, whilst guiding her away from his friends "and I was wondering if you'd like to come with me, how about it? Just you and I, walking through a snowy Hogsmeade, hand in hand, sounds fun, yeah?"  
"Potter, you've been asking me out for years now, when are you going to get the message that _I'm not interested?" _Lily demanded.  
"Well, I know that deep down, you've got more than a bit of a crush on me, and so I'm just giving you the opportunity to do something about it. Technically, I'm doing you a favour." James winked, ignoring Lily's protests "I mean, who wouldn't want _this?_" he asked jokingly, gesturing to himself. "You're just lucky that I might like you a bit too..."  
Lily removed his hand from her shoulders, and stepped away from him "Sorry to disappoint, Potter, but I'm not interested. See you around" With that comment, she stalked off after her friends, leaving James stood alone, his shoulders drooped and his pretence of confidence and charm gone.

"She said no." He told his friends as they headed inside "Again!"  
"Never mind, Prongs, that hot chic doesn't know what she's missing out on." Sirius told him "What?" He asked when James shot him a death stare "Hot? Well, she is!"  
It was true; Lily Evans was arguably the prettiest girl in the 7th year at Hogwarts. She had a perfect figure, along with long, thick red hair that was often filled with hair pins in an attempt to make it stay up in a messy bun. Her eyes were a bright green, and her face had a scattering of freckles, not too many so that she looked childish, but just enough to make her seem cute. When her looks met her personality, she became a heart throb for many boys, not just James Potter. But Sirius wasn't one of them. His heart belonged to a certain werewolf; Remus Lupin.

"Hey, I hope that Lily isn't tempting you, Sirius, aren't you happy with me?" Remus grinned, one arm slung over his boyfriend's shoulders.  
"No-one could make me happier." Sirius told the werewolf, despite James pulling vomiting faces in the background.  
"Don't pretend you're not jealous of our perfect relationship, Prongs" Sirius laughed, pulling Remus closer. "But one day, James, you'll have a perfect relationship of your own."  
"Yeah, maybe..." replied James doubtfully.

2 weeks later, at the Hogsmeade weekend, Lily found herself sat in the 3 Broomsticks on her own. She'd let her friends go ahead, as she had some last minute Head Girl duties to attend. Where her supposed Head Boy had been, she didn't know, but it wasn't like she'd missed him or anything.

When she'd arrived in Hogsmeade, the friends that she'd arranged to meet in the Three Broomsticks were nowhere to be found. Feeling quite depressed, she'd sat down with a full mug of hot, foaming, Butterbeer and had only just begun to take her numerous coats and jackets off, as it was snowing, just as James had predicted, when there was a gust of freezing cold wind from the door, and a certain Gryffindor Quidditch player walked in. His dark hair was sprinkled with snow, and his cheeks were flushed with the cold. 'He looks quite handsome' Lily thought, before stopping herself in horror. Spotting Lily in the corner of the pub, James took his gloves off, waved awkwardly at her, and ran his hand through his hair.

He made his way over to Lily, taking his scarf and coat off as he did so.  
"Hey, Evans, didn't think I'd see you here," he said, pulling up a chair to sit opposite her.  
"Well, who were you looking for then?"  
"Ouch! Ok, I was looking for you, then, because I thought you'd appreciate some company, instead of being sat on your own! I was being _nice!_"  
"How did you know I was on your own before you came in?" Lily quizzed.  
"Wow, you're good. And now I've landed myself in it. Damn."  
"Landed yourself in what?"  
"What'll probably turn into an argument between you and your friends. They didn't meet you because they wanted me to meet you instead. It was their idea, not mine, before you start to insult me."  
"They tried to _set us up?!_ How _dare_ they?" Lily exclaimed.  
"I thought you'd react like that. Oh well, I'll just add this to my list of Times I've Tried And Failed To Get Lily Evans To Go On A Date With Me. Nice to see you, Lil" As he got up to leave, Lily said:  
"No!" Lily exclaimed "I mean, you might as well stay for a bit, now you're here, James-"  
"Aha! I knew it! You _do_ like me! And you called me 'James', instead of 'Potter'! Well, we are getting somewhere!" James exclaimed, whilst sitting down again.  
"Hey, I didn't say I liked you, just that you can stay, because... because..." Lily slumped back into her seat, giving up on thinking up an excuse.  
"Lil, it's time we were honest about... about how we feel about each other."  
"I've been honest, I don't like you, I mean, I don't_ mind _you, but I don't have any feelings for you, you know, romantically-" Lily waffled, before James cut her off by grabbing her hand which had previously been resting on the table.  
"But, I think you do. And this isn't me being a 'stuck-up idiot', or an 'arrogant toerag', this is me being brutally honest. And I suppose that if I want you to be honest about your feelings, I'll have to return the favour. So here it is:" He took a deep breath. "I like you, Lily Evans, I like you a lot. For years I've been getting butterflies every time I see you, completely losing my cool every time you look my way, and consequently putting on the arrogance that you've grown to hate so much. If I'd known that you wouldn't like cocky James Potter, I wouldn't have been that way, but by the time I realised that you didn't, it was too late. So I was wondering if maybe we could start again. You forget stuck up Potter, and you meet the new, sweet, charming James, who is..."He took another deep breath, and looked up into Lily's startlingly green eyes "who is in love with Lily Evans." He knew he was blushing, but at least it showed that what he was saying wasn't a joke. "Now it's your turn. How do you feel about me?" James asked.  
"I'm not sure..." Lily began "I thought that I didn't, because of how you treated Sev, how could I like anyone who hurt my best friend like that? But since you stopped, and began to become a bit more sensible, more mature, I started to think differently. I noticed you in the Common Room, sat joking with your friends, and I found you quite attractive, but I put it to the back of my mind. Then on the Quidditch pitch, training the youngest ones, and I realised you were quite caring and considerate too. I shouldn't be saying this; it'll make your head bigger." Lily joked half-heartedly.  
"No, you're forgetting, I'm not big-headed anymore."  
"Yes you are, you always will be, but I find it quite endearing now."  
"So if I'm attractive, caring, considerate, and you find me endearing, why do you keep saying no every time I ask you out?"  
"I don't know, I think it's a habit. We were, what, 11, when you first asked me out? And obviously we were too young then, you only asked me as a joke, and I thought relationships were 'Yuk', so I said no. And then it continued, but I stopped saying no because I didn't like the idea of a relationship, I said no because of how you treated people. And this year? I've been saying no out of determination not to break my promise."  
"Your promise?"  
"I promised my friends that 'I'd never have anything to do with that arrogant James Potter'"  
"But I'm not arrogant anymore" James winked, contradicting himself "So you won't be breaking your word if you go out with me now..."  
"I guess not." There was a pause.  
"So, you never said, how do you feel about me now?" James asked her grinning.  
Lily mumbled something incomprehensible.  
"What was that?"  
"Don't make me say it again!"  
"Well I've told you, so you have to return the favour!"  
"Fine. But not in here, there are too many people to laugh at me."  
"Lil, they're not listening, they don't give a damn about us! But, then again, a walk in the snow, hand in hand would be nice..." James was grinning again, remembering his latest attempt to ask her out, in which he'd suggested the exact same thing. "Come on, let's go." He dropped some money on the table, ignoring Lily who was saying that she'd pay herself, and dragged her outside into the snow.

Hogsmeade looked like an exquisite Christmas cake, Lily thought, as she stepped outside the pub. The hills had become endless white sheet of icing, the houses and shops could easily be imagined as miniature decorative figurines, and the trees appeared to be dusted with icing sugar. The snow on the ground was a couple of centimetres deep, so it was still easy to walk in, but made Lily glad she'd worn boots.  
"So?" James asked, as they began to walk out of the village centre.  
"So what?"  
"You're putting off answering me! But I'm not gonna give up, Lily. How do you feel about me _now?_"  
"Fine. I like you, but I've been pretending I don't. There, I said it."  
"But _how_ do you like me? 'Like', as in friends, or 'like' as in more than that?"  
"Are you trying to torture me, James Potter?!"  
"Just answer the question."  
"I_ like_ like you, ok, is that clear enough?" Lily's cheeks were red, she knew. She'd never _ever _confessed to a boy that she'd had feelings for them before.  
"That's plenty clear." James grinned, "So you don't mind if I hold your hand now?"  
"I _suppose_ that'd be ok," Lily smiled, jokingly.

So, as James had suggested a couple of weeks back, they took 'a walk through a snowy Hogsmeade, hand in hand'.  
Just when Lily thought the silence was about to get awkward, James swooped down and plucked something from the melting snow on the grassy verge at the edge of the path. When he presented it to her, she realised what it was. A short yellow flower, somehow growing in the melting snow.  
"A Glacier Lily," James explained "They're a Muggle flower, which grow best in melting snow, but they're very rare in England. I've only ever seen a couple before, it's almost as if we were meant to find it..." he smiled, and Lily noticed how nice his eyes were for the first time. "You know, they remind me of you: beautiful, but understated."  
Lily smiled "Since when did you know so much about flowers?"  
"I know a lot about everything, that's part of what makes me so awesome." James winked, to let her know she was joking.  
Lily reached out to take the flower from him, but he stopped her gently. He outstretched his hand and placed the Lily in her hair, just above her ear. "There," he said gently, adjusting the flower, "It suits you,"  
The little romantic gesture left Lily weak at the knees. She'd always been so confident, that she'd terrified all the boys into not doing anything about their feelings for her. That's what made James different, she thought. He wasn't afraid of admitting how he felt.  
Something so simple, yet touching, as James presenting her with a flower, made her feel truly special for the first time in her life. So, taking hold of his elbows, and moving his arms so that they were around her waist, she tilted her head upwards and kissed him.

James' mind was reeling: 'Lily was kissing him. Lily _Evans_ was kissing _him!' _It was almost as if he had been made for this moment, because he didn't have to think twice about how to kiss her back, he just _knew_. He knew that she preferred his arms on her back, instead of through her hair. He knew that she only wanted a gentle kiss, at the moment anyway, and he knew that she meant it, and wasn't just messing him around.

As they broke apart, James took Lily's hand, and they smiled at each other.  
"Time for another walk?" he asked, trying to cover up the absurdly happy smile on his face.  
"Yeah, that'd be ok..." she grinned.  
As the couple strolled through Hogsmeade again, James had thoughts of their future going through his head. He knew it'd only been one kiss, and might not mean anything, but that didn't stop him daydreaming. He was going to marry this girl one day, he decided, and they'd have a long and happy life together. They'd have a huge family, with loads of kids, and watch them grow up and get married themselves, while he and Lily grew old together. Life with Lily would never get boring, he knew, because he loved more than he thought was possible. And to anyone who said that he was too young to know how he felt: 'Damn you!' was his response. James was certain of his feelings for Lily, and he couldn't wait for the long and happy life that he knew he'd build with her.  
Lily turned to look at him "What?" she asked.  
"What what?"  
"Why're you smiling?"  
"No particular reason. I'll tell you someday," James promised, winking.  
And with that, they headed back to school, hand in hand, but this time, the silence was comfortable. 


End file.
